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shower dimensions-no door needed

For those of you that have built showers that have no shower door (ie: geometrically arranged so that the spray from the shower head won't exit the opening into the shower), what dimensions were necessary to make it work?

I am planning for a nice bathroom remodel this spring, and the homeowner has a picture of a shower she likes from a magazine. The big Q is whether I can make it work in the dimensions that are available in the room.

Re: shower dimensions-no door needed

Hi Rob, Paul D. here, self-disclosing my DIY status.

We have friends who had their bathroom remodeled to an open, door-less design, that they swore did not result in water all over the floor. It was about 48" square, constructed off a corner formed by an outside and inside wall to form a non-equilateral pentagon. Visualize a 48" square with a corner lopped off. That corner was the door. The shower heads were located at right angles to each other on each of the full walls. (One was even an outside wall.)

The enclosure consisted of two 42" high, equal length pony-walls coming off of the full walls. The pony walls angled in at 45 degrees to form the doorway jamb. The angled sections were only about 8" long, so that the door opening was wide enough, and the shower floor size was maximized. I seem to remember that the shower heads were centered on the walls.

I was amazed, but never saw it in action. The guy was big...6"3 or more and about 240. They did not have a hand-held shower though!

I'd go back and check for you, but they moved from Austin to Raleigh-Durham last year...

Now I'll tell you what I did. My own remodel incorporates the same idea, but I bought the shower head I wanted and hooked it up to my own existing outside shower (yes, this is Austin) and tested the splash factor. We'll see what happens in the real installation, because I am not finished with the darn thing yet. Good luck...

Re: shower dimensions-no door needed

I have done rectangular styled doorless showers as small as three ft. by five ft., only leaves you a two ft. walkway. I have also done nautilis seashell designs as small as five and a half ft. in diameter. You can make an outline on the floor to see what will work and still be comfortable for the client to get in and out.

Re: shower dimensions-no door needed

Rob,

Sorry I have not gotten back with you but I am currently on a rush installation that is loaded with details and scant time to finish it (please shoot me if you ever hear me say I am going to float another ceiling!)

Paul has the right idea in using the showerhead outdoors to determine the flight path of the water droplets. I have used this method on most every doorless shower I have built because the actual size of the shower seems to be less important than other factors which include: the intensity of the shower spray, duration of the typical shower, how an individual actually uses a shower, and the individual's size. It is much easier to design a shower that will only be used by a single individual, and much more difficult designing one for two whose body size is very different.

Obviously, the larger the shower and the lower the showerhead pressure, the easier the droplets can be contained. A large body may be effective at blocking the droplet path, but this may not be so if the showerhead is placed high. For hand-held showers, all bets are off.

Practically all the showers I design and build are curved with an entrance that helps collect droplets and send them on to the shower drain. the ideal size for me is between 4 1/2 to 6-feet inside diameter with the entire shower having a footprint in the shape of the number 6.

Regardless of the size, it is essential that you build as if plenty of water droplets are going to escape each and every time the shower will be used: the entire bathroom should be waterproofed uncluding upturns at all perimeter walls.